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Friday, March 27, 2009

Smallville 8x17 - "Hex"

SUPERMAN! CHLOE SULLIVAN! LOIS LANE! (Two of her this week) JIMMY OLSEN! (sat this one out) TESS MERCER! (ditto) DOOMSDAY! (doomsditto) THE GREEN ARROW!
with special DC Universe guest star:
ZATANNA!
plus:
JOHN ZATARA (mentioned, silhouette shown)
and didn't appear in the flesh but had their pictures shown on monitors:
THE JUSTICE LEAGUE: AQUAMAN! BLACK CANARY! CYBORG! IMPULSE!
and finally, also mentioned by name:
THE WATCHTOWER!

As evidenced, this was a gigantic DCU geekout episode, the biggest since the Legion of Super Heroes visited Smallville.

Zatanna (Serinda Swan) is a hot stage magician in fishnets, as she should be, mourning the death of her father John Zatara (whom Oliver Queen referenced as the World's Greatest Magician.)

Zatanna wanted Green Arrow to steal a magic book the late Lex Luthor had acquired which would give her the means to speak spells backwards and raise her father from the dead, at the cost of her own life. There's some fun interaction between Green Arrow and Zatanna. I liked how easily she figured out Oliver was the Green Arrow (because it really is bloody obvious) and how Oliver was pissed at her for chaining him up and left him in an alley in costume but without his hoodie and shades. I also liked Zatanna volunteering her services to Oliver in the future if he ever required her special skills.

The A story, though, involved Chloe feeling blue because her marriage to Jimmy Olsen is kaput and Lois is living the high life Chloe gave up as the hotshot Daily Planet reporter. Zatanna was at her birthday party and offered her a wish, which turned out to be Chloe wishing for Lois's life, which actually turned out to be Chloe inhabiting Lois's body while the real Lois was on assignment in Mexico.

Erica Durance needs some props for being so very good at portraying other people inhabiting Lois's body. She did so earlier this season when Doomsday's Kryptonian mother possessed Lois' body, and now she does it again, playing Chloe in her body and doing so convincingly. There was some really fun Chloe/Lois and Clark moments as Clark was oblivious he wasn't talking to the real Lois Lane. Until Chloe finally told him to use his "Superspeed" and then further dropped bombs to finally get it through Clark's thick skull:

"Krypton! Fortress! Jor-El! Doomsday! Chloe!"

Zatanna gave Clark a wish where he didn't remember he has fabulous Krypton powers and thought he was an average joe. That didn't last long as Chloe reverted back to her hot little blonde self by encouraging Clark to resume his Supermanity. The mechanics of how the magic spells wore off were a little fuzzy, but who cares, this show has never been about the details.

Some really great Chloe and Clark moments and Lois and Clark moments that shifted the series back to where we were before Lana shanghaied the show for four episodes. Plus all that DC Universe stuff as Chloe goes to work for Oliver and becomes Oracle (not by name) to the Justice League.